In the late 1890s, an African-American dynamo exploded onto the bicycle racing scene at record-breaking speeds: Marshall “Major” Taylor.

May Theilgaard Watts was a writer, illustrator, naturalist, scientist and teacher. Her determination that Americans stay connected to their natural landscape in a time of increasing urbanization was the catalyst that led to the formation of the Illinois Prairie Path,

Susan B. Anthony, famed suffragette and women’s rights reformer, said of the bicycle, “It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”

In the middle of the 21st-century bike boom, the rail-trail movement is the most successful way to build trails for bikers and walkers.

The Switchback Gravity Railroad, built in 1827, was only the second railroad built in America. It relied on gravity, with mules.